My Dove chocolate wrapper (thanks Mrs. Fisher) couldn’t be more accurate: You are exactly where you are supposed to be.
A view to never tire of, sore arms from rowing against the waves and pink shoulders from the warm Canadian sun. This is vacation.
After two days in the car from Salem, VA to St. Joseph’s Island, Ontario (St. Joe’s, here), it’s nice to sit a few minutes in the cool evening breeze watching the waves roll in. Not that we haven’t spent any time sitting watching the same view. Something about the calm lake and blue skies makes silence quite comfortable.
First, we left Salem at about 9am Saturday morning. We made great time to Middletown, only stopping once for gas and to refill our snacks. We were in pretty early so we visited with Alex’s Uncle Tom before dinner at Olive Garden with his grandparents and father. It was nice to have a full meal after a day on the road. Then, when it finally hit us what a long day we had ahead of us, we set the alarm for 5 am and see how far we’d make it. I drove the first 5 hours while Alex slept on and off, switching CDs in between. Where West Virginia is fast-paced rolling hills, Michigan is as flat as can be. Good news is, I only saw one cop, and it seemed he was in a good mood. Again, we only made short stops for gas and made it to the border by 1:30 pm. We hit the duty-free store and crossed the bridge. Customs was a piece of cake. (Canadians aren’t as suspicious as Americans, I guess.) We hit a grocery story before taking on the last hour to the island.
So Canada isn’t much different than flat and foresty Michigan. More trees and more flat roads. But the speed limits are much slower. And, yes, I know it is kilometers and not miles, but it’s still much slower. Only one wrong turn before the cabins came into view. I love it here! Slow-paced and very friendly. All the families on this part of the beach go back centuries, as they’re grandparents, et cetera, bought the land together. They were all from Ohio, looking to escape the humitidy of the summer, and they and their descendants have been returning yearly ever since.
Alex’s Uncle Spencer introduced us to all of those people, and his Uncle Larry gave us a tour of the land and the beach. There’s a few boats, a small beach behind the next cabin where his cousins are staying and plenty of vegetation. There’s a hotel, General Store and a few bars a decent walk up the road.
We spent Sunday evening going from house-to-house as Spencer introduced us to anyone around. Then we made it down the road and were watching all the kids play (yes, there were more than could be counted) play until the mosquitos drove us into a cabin to listen to Larry and a few others play the mandolin, guitar and flute for us to enjoy as the sun disappeared and I got very sleepy. We walked back along the road taking note of all the stars. Spencer has a great telescope set up, but we decided to wait until tonight to really star-gaze. We had officially been up for 19 hours and it was time for bed.
Today, we both canoed and kayaked around a bit, walked into ‘town’ and even took a nap. Now, after a dinner of great spaghetti and pesto, I’m enjoying a glass of Bear Hug wildberry rum and Coke feeling the cool breeze come in off the water right up through the window. Dierks Bentley is strumming some blue grass; Alex and Larry are reading. I think we’ll soon take our drinks down the boardwalk to water and take some pictures.
Tomorrow might be the day to head over to Richard’s Landing (an hour or so drive across the island) where there is a great restaurant on the water and some more places to explore.
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